Chapter 54
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
Sarah had been in the shower. She’d dressed and was sitting on the bed, only hearing raised voices when she finished towelling dry her hair.
She went to the window, spotting Richard with his hands around Louisa’s throat.
Banging hard on the glass to get his attention, she watched in horror as Louisa collapsed.
‘No,’ she whispered, tearing down the stairs and out into the garden. ‘Louisa!’ She dropped to the ground next to her. ‘Louisa, talk to me.’
It was happening again, just like it had with Poppy. Louisa had that same look in her eyes.
‘Louisa! Oh, no, no, no!’ She turned to Richard. ‘She’s dead! What have you done?’
He paced beside her, running a hand through his hair. ‘Fuck!’
‘You’ve killed her!’ Sarah sobbed. ‘You’ve killed my sister.’
‘It was an accident.’
Sarah stood up, shoved him hard in the chest and went down on her knees again. She took her sister in her arms and rocked her. ‘How can I believe you? You’ve lied to me since I arrived here. I saw how you treated her, and I let you! How could I have been so heartless?’
‘I didn’t hear you saying anything when we were fucking,’ Richard said. ‘You didn’t think of your sister then.’
His words chilled her. She gasped as she looked down at Louisa again, looking for any signs of life.
‘We have to call for an ambulance,’ she said. ‘They might be able to get her breathing again.’ She pushed images of an unresponsive Poppy from her mind. ‘They might be able to save her!’
‘She’s dead, Sarah.’
‘Then we’ll go to the police.’
‘And say what?’
‘That we found her here and she must have tripped and hurt herself.’
‘There are already bruises appearing around her neck. They’ll know what I did.’
Richard knelt down but Sarah still held on to Louisa.
‘We need to get rid of the body,’ he said.
Sarah turned to him sharply. ‘We can’t.’
‘If I go to prison, you’ll have to leave White Oaks and Daisy will be taken into care.’
‘I haven’t done anything wrong! It was you who hurt… who killed my sister! I can look after Daisy. She’s my family. The authorities would let her stay with a blood relative, especially after what you did.’
‘No, we’re burying her. In the woods.’
Sarah held on to her sister’s body. ‘We can’t.’
‘We can. And we have to.’ Richard got up. ‘I’ll go and fetch shovels.’
‘No!’
Richard backhanded her.
She sat in shock, numb to the pain that was to come.
But as he walked towards the studio, she took a few deep breaths.
How could he have done that to Louisa? She’d known he’d hit out at her sister every now and then, but she never imagined he would go that far.
If she had, she would have got her away from him earlier, with Daisy. She would have gone too.
Richard was a psychopath. She doubted he’d meant this to happen.
His temper had merely got the better of him.
But that made it worse. For the first time, Sarah understood how much danger she could be in.
And even if she hadn’t wanted Louisa to be with Richard anymore, she never meant for anything like this to happen.
She couldn’t bury Louisa and pretend nothing had happened.
Richard was back in minutes, wheeling a barrow.
‘We can’t do this,’ Sarah tried again.
‘We have to.’
‘But whatever we do tonight will have consequences. There’s no going back. If one of us says anything to the police, the other will be charged with aiding and abetting. It’s a jail sentence for us both.’
‘Can you see any other way around this?’ Richard snapped.
‘People will miss her!’
‘Really? Who?’ Richard sneered at her. ‘I chose you and her because no one cared about you. No one will come looking for Louisa, nor you for that matter. Louisa has no friends, no one except for you. And you didn’t really care about her, did you?’
‘I did!’ It was a shame she was only now realising it. But she had loved Louisa once. She didn’t deserve to be treated this way.
Richard pulled Sarah to her feet, Louisa rolling from her lap like a rag doll. ‘You will do as I say.’ His hands went around her throat.
Sarah pawed at his fingers.
‘I could kill you too, burying you both,’ he said, squeezing harder. ‘No one would ever know. You’re nothing, both of you. Nobody gives a shit about you.’
Sarah searched for breath, spots appearing in her vision. Her chest hurt at the effort to take in air. My God, he was going to kill her too.
And then, it was over as he let go.
She coughed as she inhaled too hard. Bending over, she rested her hands on her knees as tears poured from her eyes. Richard didn’t even look at her as he took hold of Louisa’s arms and pulled her towards the wheelbarrow.
‘Help me get her in there,’ he commanded.
She shook her head. She wouldn’t do that.
While he cursed and shoved Louisa’s body into it, Sarah’s fingers rummaged round in the flower border, picking up a rock. Then with a scream she ran at him.
He turned in time to dodge it, pushing her out of the way. Then he bunched his hand up into a fist and hit her in the face.
‘We are burying her in the woods and that is the end of the matter,’ he growled.
She wouldn’t show him she was hurting. With tears pouring down her face, she stood shaking as he pushed the wheelbarrow away. She watched him disappear into the woods. Minutes later, she saw him marching towards her again.
‘We’d better get digging,’ he said. ‘It will take a good few hours.’
Still, she didn’t move.
‘Come on!’ he shouted. ‘Move.’
On autopilot, she followed him into the clearing. He placed the shovel in the soil and pressed the heel of his foot down into the ground.
She refused to join in, even knowing it would take him twice as long. When it was done, they stood over the grave.
‘We never speak about this again,’ Richard said.
‘How can we after…?’ Sarah sobbed.
‘It’s done now and we just need to forget about it.’
‘Someone will know she’s missing.’
‘We won’t tell anyone.’ Richard’s eyes were wide and white in the dusk.
‘Think about it. There’s her doctor that sees her once in a while, but only when she makes an appointment.
We have no neighbours except that nosy bitch Linda down the lane.
We can say that we split up, that Louisa has gone back to Derby. ’
‘But what about Daisy? She wouldn’t leave without her.’
Richard paced the ground again. ‘We’ll have to keep her hidden for a while.’
‘We can’t do that!’
‘Yes, we can.’ He took hold of her upper arms. ‘We can shield her from people. Until anyone stops asking about Louisa.’
‘But what do we tell her?’
‘That Mummy went away. After a while, she’ll stop asking for her.’
‘But that’s cruel!’
‘A few nights ago, you were wanting something like this to happen. For Louisa to disappear.’
‘Not like this,’ she shouted. ‘I wanted her to leave.’
‘Well, she’s gone now.’ Richard groaned. ‘I never meant for it to happen.’
‘Liar!’
‘You need to know that I will stop at nothing to see that this doesn’t get out. Nothing, do you hear? That includes harming you, or Daisy. Besides, do you want to go to prison for helping me cover it up? Daisy will go into care then.’
‘She would go to my mum.’
‘And you’d want that to happen? Really?’
Sarah couldn’t speak but she shook her head in reply.
‘Then we play it my way. I hate what’s happened to Louisa, but it’s done.’
Sarah sobbed. It was his fault, not hers. But they both had to live with it. Would it be easy to forget? Did she even want to replace her sister now?
So many questions were running through her mind. Many would go unanswered. Most could fade with time. But one thing was certain. Her sister was never coming back.
And right now, she wasn’t sure how she felt about that.